What bass amp is the best for this price range and with this bass??

Question

I have a schecter stilleto studio 5 5 string bass and i am looking for a good amp to get. I want one that has tons and tons of tonal control, but can also go loud enough to play at a small concert. My price range is high so just name some even if they are 10000 dollars i am just getting an idea. Thanks!

Answer 1

Nice bass man =D

There are plenty of good brands out there - just try and stay away from Behringer like the plague; bad quality, bad reliability, bad sound...

In the mid-price range, there's companies like Ashdown, Gallien-Krueger and Hartke. All three of those have fairly "transparent" tones, as far as I know, and they all make good products (though I've heard GK's lower lines aren't that great). Ashdown isn't a very well-known company, since they're from the UK, but all the things I've heard about them are incredibly positive (both from gear reviews and other bass players). They have the MAG line, which is their middle line of gear, and ABM, their top line of amps and cabs. Also, since they just came out with new EVOII amps (with a compressor added) they're selling their old ones for a lower price, so you can get their 600W MAG for $300, the same price as their 300W amp - which is great, since you can get a powerful, reliable amp without paying an arm and a leg.

In the more expensive range, there are manufacturers like Trace Elliot (for a classic British bass tone) and Ampeg (pretty expensive, but the Ampeg SVT 8x10 is the bass amp of choice of most touring bassists in rock bands; the classic "rock bass" tone).

All the brands I listed should have very good tonal control.

If you want to play loud volumes while maintaining good tone, you want "headroom", which means more Watts than you "need", necessarily. Most amps don't sound the greatest at their top volume, so that's where headroom comes in. You want enough Watts to turn out high volume without maxing your amp. As a side note, Tube amps generally sound better at high volumes than Solid State amps (though not as good at lower volumes), though they cost substantially more.

In a band, it's generally good to have at least twice the wattage of your guitarists (3 times is better) - 300+ Watts is a good region to shoot for.

Also, since you're playing a 5-string, it'll help to have a speaker cabinet that can handle the low frequencies. A 1x15 speaker cabinet would work pretty well - or, even better, a 1x18 cab (that might be a bit harder to find though, and more expensive). The downside of a 1x15 cab is that you don't have as much midrange or high-end presence; a 4x10 cabinet would give you a nice punchy tone with great mids and highs, at the expense of a bit of low end. Even better than either though would be both - if you have the money, get a 1x15 AND a 4x10 cabinet and connect them both to your amplifier. Most amps have a resistance rating of 4 ohms, and most cabs have a rating of 8 ohms, so if you use just 1 cab you'll get about half of your amps full power, but with two 8 ohm cabs connected, the amp will run at its full 4 ohm rating. (Just make sure the cabs ARE rated at 8 ohms, because you don't want to blow a fuse in your amp)

Sorry if that was REALLY long, but it should help you out a bit...as you can probably tell, I'm a little biased toward Ashdown, since I just bought their MAG 600W head and looking for a MAG 4x10 cabinet...but any of the brands I mentioned should be very reliable, and very good quality.

Hope that helps.

Cheers! =)